Lois Lowry

The Gods must have been smiling upon BYU-Idaho this semester!

Every semester, we have a someone who has made their career through the English language come and speak to us. Usually, they're unheard of essayists and they suck.

Not this semester! We got Lois Lowry!!! For those of who you who are staring the screen going, "Who??" She wrote The Giver, Gossamer, Gathering Blue, A Summer to Die, The Willoughby's, and quite a few others. She's amazing and The Giver is one of my all time favorites.

So Friday night she spoke in the Hinckley chapel from 7-8:30-ish. She spoke about EVERYTHING! She talked a lot about the inspiration for her books (helpful, to me), how the middle of a book is the hardest to write (encouraging, to me), her family, converting her books into plays, her friends, and pretty much everything you could think about. She read from a few of her books, and her memoir. She's very funny and incredibly touching. This is one amazing woman!

After her talk, she stayed to sign books. Unfortunately, my copy of The Giver is buried under the stairs in California. So I took my journal!

Things that induce laughter/smiles/happy feelings in me today:
1. This is the second author I've met who has signed something for me. I'm going to keep trying for more!
2. Lois Lowry is amazing.
3. I want to read The Willoughby's. It sounds hilarious!
4. I see Stewart everywhere and he never acknowledges he knows who I am.

My Bear

Chelsea and Nicole came over to the house the night I was packing up to say goodbye and to help me load up my car - which they've gotten quite good at, actually.

So, somehow Jake ended up with one of my old bears. (I didn't even know I had him still, but apparently somewhere in the house I have all kinds of stuff!) The first thing Jake does with a stuffed animal is chew off it's eyes. (He must not like to be stared at as he's dismembering innocent little bears...) Then he'll go for the nose, and finally he'll pick one limb that he focuses the majority of his attention on.

You can see all of this in my poor little bear.

Notice, he has no face. He's missing his leg. He has no stuffing, and most importantly, Chelsea's hand is up his butt.

Poor bear!

Things that induce laughter/smiles/happy feelings in me today:

1. I finished all of my homework for the weekend in about an hour. And I'm taking 12 credits. WOO HOO!

2. Nicole Norton laughs at pretty much everything I say. It's nice to know someone appreciates the humor.

3. Lyrics that speak to you.

4. Good quotes from good books.

LBS

That's pronounced "Pounds."

Bryce, Scott and I started a band.

Thank you, Bryce, for being so bored at work every day and making this album cover for us...

How did this happen, you may ask? First, Scott had his pinky finger painted (this will make sense later...)

It all started when Bryce and I went to Disneyland. We had talked all day about how much Bryce loves Mama Mia. Honestly - the retard got ABBA songs stuck in my head ALL day long. He found out that I hadn't seen it and decided that after our first Beverly Hills excursion we would go back to his place and watch the movie. We only made it half way through before we were all exhausted and had to call it quits.

The next time we hung out, I painted Scott's second toe a lovely shade of pink, (thank you, Nancy!) for no good reason. We talked about how much we liked ABBA (and by "we" I mean mostly Bryce) and then Bryce got yet another genius idea - to start a band that had an ABBA feel to it. The first step was deciding that since ABBA got their name by using the first initials of each band member's names, was making our own name: LBS (pronounced "Pounds"). From there it was smooth sailing. Scott is a concert pianist, Bryce can sing and sorta play the guitar and I ...don't really know what I'll be doing. HAHAHA. Bryce said I can have a cowbell or tambourine. We're going to wear incredibly outlandish outfits (I love a good assonance) and - please keep in mind, I had NO hand in this part of the decision at all - we're going to all keep the second toe of our right foot painted. We'll change the color once a week. We're also going to keep our true nationalities a secret by speaking with different accents and having 3 different houses in 3 different countries that we rotate through. THE WORLD WILL NEVER KNOW!

Things that induce laughter/smiles/happy feelings in me today:

1. Bryce and Scott. These boys are amazing and I'm so glad I'm friends with them. They crack me up.

2. Scott's car dying. And then he thought I was sweet for giving his car a jump - like I would leave him stranded in Beverly Hills!

3. The boys have nasty toes. Scott has a gross big toe nail - I don't know why - and Bryce's pinky toe on his right foot is webbed and has 2 toenails on it. I swear to you - I've seen it.

4. Scott looks like Dr. Hodgins on Bones. No, really...look it up. It's freaky.

5. Without me, they'd just be BS.

Movie Night

Nicole and I started something of a tradition when I was home for the 7 week break. We watch a movie, chit chat, and eat homemade caramel popcorn.

The most recent movie night was featuring Coraline. We watched it in 3-D - hence the glasses.

The movie stunk. Nicole fell asleep for part of it and worst of all - somehow I ruined the caramel corn!! I like chewy caramel corn and this batch came out rock hard. My teeth still hurt.

Best one? Sense and Sensibility on a Sunday with a particularly delicious serving of caramel corn because I doubled the caramel part of the recipe.

Things that induce laughter/smiles/happy feelings in me today:

1. Photo op! FUH-KINK!

2. Hillary, Britney, Alex, Molina, and Leslie.

3. Apple juice. YUM!

Beverly Hills Part 2

This post is a little bit past due.

On August 27th, Bryce held his silent auction in Beverly Hills. Chelsea and I went (THANK YOU Chelsea for going with me - I think I would have died without you...) and had a pretty good time, all in all.

Clubs are NOT my thing - at all - but this was for the best cause possible, so I went. Supported by my headband. hahaha. I love that thing.

Bryce schmoozing.

There was this giant guy there that looked like he should be playing the Hulk ("excuse me, can I touch your pecks?") and of course, the Chinese lady with the see-through clothing was back...in more see-through clothing and BOOTY SHORTS! Scott and I played a round of real or fake and I got to meet some of Bryce's friends from the mission. They were super cool.

Scott, Chelsea and I.

The auction went well. Bryce made about $6,000 and that gave him the last little bit he needed to pay off one full lung surgery! Woo hoo!

Things that induce laughter/smiles/happy feelings in me today:
1. How easily I get along with Scott when really I've known him for like a week...
2. Chelsea's totally rocking dance moves. While sitting down.
3. Nicole not realizing that Scott and Bryce both have beards.
4. Stud.

Jake the Dog

We like to sit on the floor in my family... Mostly it's my dad and Jereme on the floor, but I picked it up in Seattle and for some reason it's pretty comfortable. The only problem is, the dog. He's a 70 pound lap dog.

He'll walk right up to you, and then sit on you.

He also loves to sleep on his back with all 4 legs in the air.

Really, this is the oddest dog I've ever been around. He's incredibly vocal. I don't mean he barks a lot - he doesn't, actually. He GROANS. And sings - which is SO fun. But really, he groans ALL the time.

Things that induce laughter/smiles/happy feelings in me today:

1. Rexburg smells like hay.

2. Sonic ran out of tator tots and darn near caused an uproar.

3. English classes start tomorrow!

Stranded

No, I didn't get stranded coming up here.

I just feel stranded.

I can't get the internet in my apartment for some stupid reason. So I'm up here on the third (HOLLER Sister Sargent, and KP!) trying to figure everything out.

I didn't realize how dependant I am on constantly having the internet at my fingers. I think a small piece of it is that up here, my friend list gets considerably shorter every semester. And it's about to get cut again! Jessie is leaving me on Friday for good. No more PK runs. :o(

BWAHAHA! Who am I kidding? I'll go alone!

Anyways. The point is, if you're writing to me on facebook (or my email account, for that matter) and I'm not replying, this is why. Until further notice, I don't have the internet. I do have a cell phone though. A nice, shiny, new one. So please feel free to contact me on that. (I still don't know what my ring tone sounds like!)

Things that induce laughter/smiles/happy feelings in me today:
1. New books.
2. Hillary. She's a new roomie and super nice already!
3. Papa Kelsey's is only 13 minutes away.

Revealing More Nerd-Tendencies

I don't know why I, all-of-a-sudden, have decided to reveal exactly how nerdy I am to my few readers, but I'm going to do it again.

Let me give a bit of a backdrop.

You all know I love the Twilight books, right? So, because I'm such a nerd, I read Stephenie Meyer's website. And Stephenie Meyer somehow got a hold of this new book by Suzanne Collins (I'd never heard of her, but apparently she's written a few series before...one of them 9 books long!) and LOVED it! Last summer, she posted on her blog about how much she loved this book (called The Hunger Games) and couldn't put it down for anything and even took it with her and family out to a restaurant one night and was reading during dinner. (Do you see why I like her so much?!) I read a chapter of it online and decided to give it a read even though it isn't technically in my favorite genre.

I fell in love. I fell in love with everything about this book, the characters and, most especially, the main character's sarcasm.

So naturally, I did research until my fingers bled from typing (no, not really) and found the release date for the second book, Catching Fire. It came out today.

Present day: Barnes and Noble opens at 9 here, so I got online and found a 30% off coupon for the book and made it to the store around 9:45. I got home just after 10 and started reading. I had to take care of Grannie for a bit and eat lunch and talk with my mom, but it took me roughly 6 hours-ish to finish and I STILL can't stop thinking about it! (It's only been 2 hours since I finished, but whatevs...it's just that captivating of a read!)

Oh my gosh. I'm so annoyed that Nicole hasn't read it and can't read it until this weekend and that she reads slower than I do because I am BURSTING to talk about it, people, but no one I know has read the first one, let alone finished the second.

AMAZING books, I highly suggest them. All of the research I've been able to find says that it's a trilogy, and since this second one came out almost one year to the day of the first one, I expect the third and final (although, I hope it won't be the final book) installment this time next year.

I'm going to die waiting for it.

Things that induce laughter/smiles/happy feelings in me today:
1. Trying to think my way out of the book.
2. How incredibly absorbed I become when I read.
3. The stupid dog. Honestly - he made me so angry today, but you just can't hate him for long.
4. Peeta Mellark.
5. Little blessings. Like distractions...slash borderline amnesia.
6. Chasing the bugs in my room last night at like 2 in the morning in my underwear. No, I'm not joking. When I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror I laughed.
7. Sister Sargent. You'll do GREAT, love!